English to Visit Queensland and WA

Finance Minister Bill English
leaves on Sunday for a first-hand look at the resources
sector in Queensland and Western Australia.

The trip
will include meeting the premiers of Queensland and Western
Australia, as well as mining and resources companies and
sector groups. Mr English will also visit the Port of
Brisbane, Rio Tinto’s Tom Price iron ore mine in the
Pilbara region 1500km north of Perth, and Woodside
Petroleum’s LNG plant in the same area.“As our
largest trading partner, taking nearly a quarter of our
total exports, the Australian economy is vitally important
to New Zealand,” Mr English says.

“A large part
of Australia’s success story in recent years has been the
performance of the resources sector. This visit will give me
the opportunity to talk directly to the people who are
taking the commercial risks and learn about their
expectations for the future, while also seeing first-hand
the scale of some of their operations.”

Mr English
will be accompanied on part of the visit by a small
delegation of New Zealand businesspeople who are keen to
develop and extend their relationships with companies
operating in Australia’s mining and resource industry.

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